Thursday, August 10, 2006

Google Maps on your site in 60 seconds using Wikimapia

I've always been a big fan of Wikimapia, the Google Maps site that lets you describe locations in much the same way that Wikipedia allows you to add to articles in its database. It's a great way to share information and also to add some context to the vast amount of satellite map viewing available from Google Maps.

Until recently Wikimapia was only able to viewed from the site itself. This has changed with a new feature that lets you frame an area on Wikimapia and add it to your own site or blog instantly! To put this feature into action head over to Wikimapia, zoom to the location you wish to display and click Wikimapia from the top right corner, then select "Map on your page" from the list. Frame up the area that you wish to put on your website or blog, then copy the code that is provided. I did the following in about 60 seconds:

This new feature will let you share an area of the map (College campus, tourist area or your hometown) on your website so people can interact directly with Google Maps and add details to Wikimapia without leaving your site! Wikimapia has at present 660,000 described locations after just 2 months of being operational. The Russian developers behind this great tool expect that by 3 months they'll be displaying 1 million spots on the map. Keep in mind as well that the multi-language functionality means that Wikimapia is being used in nearly 40 languages!